"Wii isn't designed to work with high-end HDTVs" says Nintendo Sr. Tech Support

[UNCjigga]

Whoops...posted this in the wrong forum:

OK, so I bought a Wii last Spring and I love it--no I don't play it all the time but whenever I've got friends over we hook up Madden '08, Wii Sports and MarioParty. Good times. Well fastforward to a few weeks ago, when I notice that while playing Bowling and Tennis there are a few graphical glitches showing on the screen. The glitches look like vertical dotted lines, and the dots are "sparkling" between green and pink colors. Its a minor annoyance, and I figure maybe one of the cables is loose or there's some noise.

Last week I noticed that the issue got worse. There are more lines, and the effect is similar to what one might see if one overclock's their graphics card past its' limit. I adjusted the cables, and it didn't help. I tried changing resolution from 480p to 480i (using the component cables on a Sammy LCD TV) and turning widescreen on or off, but nothing helped. Then I switched out to the standard composite cables. No help. I tried a different game, Zelda, and noticed that it was a LOT WORSE. Around this time I suspected something was wrong with my console--like the graphics processor/scanline converter on the board had gone bad. But before jumping to conclusions, I tried it on another TV. My 32" Westinghouse LCD. Again I tried both sets of cables, but nothing helped.

So today I call up Nintendo Tech Support. I'm impressed when I get to a tech within 30 seconds of making the call. I describe the problem, he asks me if I've tried different cables, different input, different TV etc. and I tell him yes, yes, yes. Within another 45 seconds he escalates me to a Senior Tech. Again, I'm impressed. But this is when things go wrong.

As I'm describing my issue to the tech, she asks "are both of your televisions HDTV?". "Yes", I answer. She then tells me "well the Wii wasn't really designed to work with high-end HDTVs." I say nothing, but a vein in my head starts to protrude. She continues, "these new TVs are designed to draw things very fast, and the Wii can't keep up, so that's why on these TVs you'll see these issues." Now that vein is big-shit-poppin, but I remain calm and kindly tell her "you can't be serious". Now she tells me she's reading off a technical bulletin, and the bulletin says that post-processing on the TV and various picture quality settings might cause what I'm seeing. So I explain that this is definitely NOT an issue with my TVs, and if it were I would've noticed it MONTHS AGO.

She won't budge, and her final resolution is for me to take my console to a friend's house and try it on another TV. At this point I'm livid, and I'm trying to explain things in technical terms but obviously I'm speaking a different language. So now I'm supposed to take it to a friend's house and test it? How the fvck does that help ME? Am I supposed to "downgrade" my TVs so I can play the Wii?

The best part though--the last thing she said to me was "Please understand we don't want to waste your time. If you send it back to use we'll need to use it for evaluation and you won't be able to play your Wii for some time. And if we take it back and find nothing wrong with it, it's just a waste of time".

Thanks for the tip Nintendo Customer Service.

Anyone else had similar problems? How did you get Nintendo to repair/replace your console?

UPDATE: Screenshots

zelda_1.jpg
zelda_2.jpg
zelda_3.jpg
zelda_4.jpg

UPDATE 2: Nintendo gave me a repair order # on the 2nd call, sending it back for repairs now. Youtube video of my issue below

Wii glitches

[blurredvision]

Wow, that's horrible customer service. Hopefully that one person is not the norm for their "Senior Techs", because that's the biggest pile of bullshit I've ever heard. Write a letter to Reggie Fils-Aime .

[imported_Imp]

I've never had confidence in technical support and am proven correct everytime they tell me what they told you: "run through these useless, unrelated troubleshooting things when you already know what the problem is". I got something like this from Creative when I told them I got a faulty driver CD that would error-up unless I slowed down my DVD drive. I even told them I scanned the disc for errors and got positives.

Best idea is just to google the problem on forums, only thing that ever helps.

[Czar]

Dumb tech

But I borrowed a friends wii for a while before I got my own wii. I ran into these same problems and it had everything to do with the cables if I remember correctly.

Have not had this problem with my wii so far.

[CKDragon]

Originally posted by: UNCjigga
She won't budge, and her final resolution is for me to take my console to a friend's house and try it on another TV.

It is annoying, but call back in 10 minutes and say you tried on a neighbor's SDTV and it's the exact same thing.

Good luck.

[RaiderJ]

I have an HDTV and haven't ever had that issue. I'm going to say that tech was a moron. Those screenshots look exactly like an issue with the GPU, which I believe can be an issue if you leave your Wii on standby (overheats).

[CKDragon]

Originally posted by: RaiderJ
I have an HDTV and haven't ever had that issue. I'm going to say that tech was a moron. Those screenshots look exactly like an issue with the GPU, which I believe can be an issue if you leave your Wii on standby (overheats).

Yea, if you leave the WiiConnect24 feature on the Wii gets extremely hot and the fans never kick in. Pics

Nintendo techs SHOULD be aware of the problem by now...

[UNCjigga]

Originally posted by: CKDragon

It is annoying, but call back in 10 minutes and say you tried on a neighbor's SDTV and it's the exact same thing.

Good luck.

That's exactly what I did, except I waited a few hours so it was believable! This time the first tech took care of me without any transferring and I have a repair order # and instructions for FedExing it back! Yay!

[UNCjigga]

Originally posted by: CKDragon

Yea, if you leave the WiiConnect24 feature on the Wii gets extremely hot and the fans never kick in. Pics

Nintendo techs SHOULD be aware of the problem by now...

Its funny, I looked at that thread and saw some of the comments on Youtube videos of the issue, but when I asked the 2nd tech about WiiConnect24 being a culprit he said there's no way that could be the cause! Oh well, I guess they don't all read the same tech bulletins.

Anyway, here's a link to my own youtube video of the issue:
Wii glitches

[Aves]

This exact thing happen to my friend's Wii. It was hooked up to an HDTV but even moving it to an old standard-def TV made no difference. He sent it back to Nintendo and they fixed it without any problems.

[randay]

im kind of surprised that they just told you to try other things, instead of just straight up offering to have it sent in to them to have it fixed. thats piss poor customer service from such a big company. sure the response time was nice but they didnt actually do anything

[Trader05]

i had the same issue, you can search under my nick in this forum. I think it is a problem certain first gen wii's. I always left the wii connect 24 on and it was really hot when the system was even off. My green spots only appeared in RE4, right after i beat Zelda playing 3 days almost nonstop. I had Nintendo component cables with a 720p Toshiba LCD. I sent mine in and they transferred my VC games, took a little over 2 weeks, but the new one is running fine since even with WC24 on.

[biggestmuff]

Originally posted by: UNCjigga

Its funny, I looked at that thread and saw some of the comments on Youtube videos of the issue, but when I asked the 2nd tech about WiiConnect24 being a culprit he said there's no way that could be the cause! Oh well, I guess they don't all read the same tech bulletins.

Anyway, here's a link to my own youtube video of the issue:
Wii glitches

It's the WiiConnect24 being active and not an issue with the Wii connected to an HD TV.

The wireless NIC heats up and, due to its location, then caused the GPU to begin to overheat. Shut off the WiiConnect24. The power light on your Wii should be red and not orange when shut down.

[The Sly Syl]

One of the more recent Wii updates let's the Wii's fan kick on if the WiFi chip is getting too hot, even during Wii Connect 24.

It's a shame it took so long for them to fix the problem, but i don't believe you have to worry about it anymore, as long as you let your Wii update.

[Xavier434]

That tech's response doesn't make any sense. I have played Wii's on the new cutting edge HDTVs and I have never witnessed any graphical errors like this.

[imported_michealo]

this is a hardware problem, not a "graphical glitch".

you're wii overheated, probably from leaving connect24 on.

[RaiderJ]

I turned WiiConnect24 off this weekend (partly because of this thread). Does it really do anything useful anyway? I think I've gotten one message while it was off. I hate to say it, but other than buying VC games, Nintendo's online setup is piss poor.

[maziwanka]

so, OP, you are getting your wii fixed, right? i hope so. pretty ridiculous what you're going through. i haven't really played my wii in a while (waiting for galaxy and smash brothers)

[purbeast0]

that sucks man that it's screwing up right as Mario is about to come out

and from the looks of it, you made it farther in Zelda than I did before handing it over to you

[Trogdor91]

Same graphically glitches happened to me. Started on an HDTV but was the same on my nonHDTV with both component and composite cables. Didn't bother to call, just filled out the form online, sent it in, and they sent me a new one right away. Took almost 2 weeks round trip compared to my just short of 4 weeks time for my xbox.

[UNCjigga]

Originally posted by: purbeast0
that sucks man that it's screwing up right as Mario is about to come out

and from the looks of it, you made it farther in Zelda than I did before handing it over to you

I know--I'm buying Mario at Toys R Us next week just to get the $25 gift card, but I probably won't be able to play it! Nintendo sent me a pre-printed Fed Ex label which I printed today, and luckily my work has a FedEx pickup so I dropped it off this morning.

I'll be honest with Zelda, I got up to the Goran Mines but then got stuck and gave up--haven't touched it since July. I should probably read an online walkthru on that level and get back into it--after they fix my console.

[RandomFool]

I always heard Nintendo had good tech support but that's pretty terrible especially for a known issue like that.

I'm considering sending my Wii in before the warrenty expires. I've noticed the CD drive is occasionally clicks and it's got me a little worried.

[Xavier434]

How long is the warranty?

[RandomFool]

It's a year and if you register with Nintendo they give you another 3 months.

[biggestmuff]

Originally posted by: The Sly Syl
One of the more recent Wii updates let's the Wii's fan kick on if the WiFi chip is getting too hot, even during Wii Connect 24.

It's a shame it took so long for them to fix the problem, but i don't believe you have to worry about it anymore, as long as you let your Wii update.

Are you certain about that? I thought 3.0 was the latest firmware and I don't remember it having a fan fix.

EDIT: Looks like 3.1 is the latest firmware, but I don't see anything about the fan fix.